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How do I deploy video to a sign?

How do I deploy video to a sign?

Background

There are two main stages in deploying video to a sign.

To get things started, you need to add a video box to your sign. This will determine exactly where on the sign the video will appear e.g. you might want your video in the middle, surrounded by text and branding.

For now, you don't need to worry about the actual video content itself, as this will be determined right at the end, once you are ready to deploy.

As well as deploying the sign, you will also be deploying a 'playlist' containing one or more videos. These are the videos that will then play within the video box on your sign.

This separation between the sign and the video playlist gives you some extra flexibility over your content. For example, you could re-use the same branded video sign across multiple locations but deploy different video playlists where local variations are required.

Adding a Video Box in Creator

Open your sign in Creator:

Click the ‘Video Tool’ button in the Tools panel at the top left.

This adds a half-width video box that you can drag to the desired location.

To change the size of the video box, click the ‘Video Size’ drop-down menu in the ‘Tool Options’ panel. You can choose standard sizes such as quarter-size and full-screen. Alternatively if you choose ‘Custom’, you can drag the triangle symbol at the bottom-right of the video box to make it an arbitrary size.

When choosing the size, note that the aspect ratio (the ratio between the width and height) of the video box should match the aspect ratio of the videos that you intend to deploy. Otherwise the video will appear ‘stretched’ by the signage device to fill the video box.

You may also need to set the ‘Video Plane’. This determines whether the video box will appear behind (‘Back Plane’) or in front (‘Front Plane’) of other layers in your sign.

By default, the Video Plane is set to the Back, meaning that the video will appear behind any signage objects that protrude into the video area. Change this to the Front Plane if you would like the entire video box visible on the sign at all times.

Note that you can only have one video box on a sign, and animations cannot be applied to a video box.

Uploading Video in Director

Before you can create a playlist, you need to upload your video file(s) to your SignStix account. SignStix will encode your video to ensure maximum compatibility across a wide range of devices.

Log into SignStix Director:

Navigate to 'Content'.

You can either:

Click the upload icon (upwards arrow) and then navigate to your video file.

Leave the Encoding type as 'Make Compatible'.

Click the 'Upload' button.

OR

Use a file browser to navigate to your video file and use drag-and-drop to drop the file onto the Director window.

Director will show a progress bar near the top of the page to indicate upload progress.

On completion, Director will then encode the video, indicating when it has completed.

Assuming you have 'Approver' permission, the video will automatically be 'approved', making it available for adding to playlists.

Adding a Playlist in Director

Your uploaded and approved video file can now be added to a playlist, ready for deploying. If you have a playlist already, you can navigate to it in Content > All Playlists, then edit it to add your new video file.

Alternatively, a new playlist can be created as follows:

Navigate to Content.

Click the plus (+) button and choose 'New Playlist'.

Enter a name for the new playlist e.g. ‘Videos1′.

Click the plus (+) button on the right hand side in the 'Playlist entries' section.

Navigate to your newly uploaded video (using the name filter if convenient) and click it.

This will add the video file to the end of the playlist.

Add further files if you wish.

Click 'Close' to finish adding files to the playlist.

Click the 'Add Playlist' button to complete the operation.

Deploying Signage and Video

As described in Deploying a Sign, click on ‘Assignments’ and navigate to your device.

Click the plus (+) button.

Choose 'Assign a sign', select the sign that you added a video box to earlier, and click the 'Assign' button.